Mixin it up and Makin the Opponent Say WTF

PSL1 puts you in range for a BL A unless you do it really far out. Even when you do it far out though, you can often hit there arm or something when they reach out and attack.

As for conditioning, all of those options work just as well for PSL1 as they do PSL3. Its the difference of seeing Maxi take a step forward vs. Maxi flashing pink. I have yet to see someone that can consistantly poke me out of PSL1~BL. Sure they can guess right if i'm being to obvious, but when you mix it up, its not that easy to poke out of. There is only a 3 frame difference between BL's fastest attack (BL B) and RO's fastest attack, so don't see how it is much easier. Half the cast will interupt with 2A anyways, which goes under RO A. Sure, they can block BL B and punish, but that means they are standing and blocking, which means that if you cancel to neutral, your attacks will beat theirs if they try to attack after they realize a BL attack isn't coming. Try it, the cancel is not as slow as you think.

Don't get me wrong, there is definitely a risk in doing this. But the same is true with everything Maxi has.
 
PSL1 puts you in range for a BL A unless you do it really far out. Even when you do it far out though, you can often hit there arm or something when they reach out and attack.

As for conditioning, all of those options work just as well for PSL1 as they do PSL3. Its the difference of seeing Maxi take a step forward vs. Maxi flashing pink. I have yet to see someone that can consistantly poke me out of PSL1~BL. Sure they can guess right if i'm being to obvious, but when you mix it up, its not that easy to poke out of. There is only a 3 frame difference between BL's fastest attack (BL B) and RO's fastest attack, so don't see how it is much easier. Half the cast will interupt with 2A anyways, which goes under RO A. Sure, they can block BL B and punish, but that means they are standing and blocking, which means that if you cancel to neutral, your attacks will beat theirs if they try to attack after they realize a BL attack isn't coming. Try it, the cancel is not as slow as you think.

Don't get me wrong, there is definitely a risk in doing this. But the same is true with everything Maxi has.

Hmm, so in other words it's useful when u're very close then that way BL A won't whiff hmm. But geez BL A is soooooo risky to do. So difficult to hit confirm it for combo too :(

BTW don't forget RO K vs 2As in the psl3 shift, i catch ppl with that...they see the loop and think well, shit i'll just 2A him....and boom, this is why i love RO. A and K evades while BL has nothing like that unfortunately.

3 frames is a lot btw! lol...i think shifts vary in frames as well, meaning psl3 shifts and normally faster than psl1 psl2 shifts, difficult to quantify though.
 
BL A isn't that hard to hit detect CH. Go into practice mode and set CH to random, I was able to get it right every time after about 5 min of practice. Its really easy to practice recognizing the CH too, since BL A transitions to LI, which neutral shifts to back to BL.

3 frames is a lot btw! lol...i think shifts vary in frames as well, meaning psl3 shifts and normally faster than psl1 psl2 shifts, difficult to quantify though.

Is this true. I asked a question about this in another thread, but no one had an answer.

Anyways, i still use PSL1, it works for me. If I run into someone that can actually poke me out of it on reaction, then maybe i'll stop. As it is now though, I can tell people are just guessing when I get hit out of it, cause I'll do delayed LO BK or BL A the next time and they eat CH.
 
Hmm, so in other words it's useful when u're very close then that way BL A won't whiff hmm. But geez BL A is soooooo risky to do. So difficult to hit confirm it for combo too :(
BL A saved me last night. A guy got behind me, and he ran up to throw and BL A stunned him from BT. Bizarre hit detection.
 
UBER: i noticed the other night you were all about that 33bA. went into training and figured it out. having a hard time figuring out when is the best to use it. since its still a little akward for me, i have gotten punished more than it has worked out for me.
is this something that is normally in your arsenal and if so, do you use it on downed opponents or when is the best situation to throw that out?
 
I use it against downed opponents sometimes when i think they are gonna stand up into it. You can also use it as a delayed attack. It covers step pretty well and is great when blocked, so its good to use whenever you think you can get it out. If they start ducking when they see the motion, hit em with 33B.
 
That's exactly how i use 33bA as well, it works very well on grounded opponents...such a lovely attack.

btw, uber...i can do it in practice mode quite fine, in a game however it's insanely hard...takes a deal of foresight, i can't reflexively do it.

Also BL in general seems to be the stance that cancels fastest. Noone gave u answer cuz, it's more opinionated, as it is hard to qualify it, especially when u can't provide proof :)

margi...BL A tracks really really well all over the place. Such a good move, if only it had more range!!! I wonder if you could've gotten a BT B+K combo in that situation hehe
 
margi...BL A tracks really really well all over the place. Such a good move, if only it had more range!!! I wonder if you could've gotten a BT B+K combo in that situation hehe
It occurred to me, but I thought he was closing too fast for the B+K.
 
Unfortunately for all of us Maxi users, even if we master him we will never beat any of the top tier characters, he has been nerfed ever since SC2 :/
 
Unfortunately for all of us Maxi users, even if we master him we will never beat any of the top tier characters, he has been nerfed ever since SC2 :/

i whole hardedly disagree with that. ive beaten top tier characters. offline and online. some good some bad. ive also been beaten by top tier characters. I play maxi different according to 2 things. what character it is, and who the person is im playing. Beating top tier characters is not impossible. I think maxi will move up in this aleged "tier" real soon! unfortunatly the game hasnt been out long enough to have a well established tier! be patient my friend!
 
I don't know if you remember, but maxi was a low tier character in SC 2 as well. He was decent in SC 3, but he hasn't really been great since the original SC. Anyways, Maxi has the tools to compete. I will admit that you have to take more risks in order to do this compared to some other characters, but you still have a viable chance of winning. I actually wouldn't even rank him low tier. I would say he's at least lower-mid, probably closer to mid. Compared to someone like Zas, he's got a lot going for him.
 
I like him more now than ever honestly. More fun, more dynamic.

I've been revamping my style a bit trying to include what uber was discussing with me....still haven't had much success with BL shifts though...my opponents start ducking when they see BL and then respond with a fast WS attack, or simple 2K me...it's quite annoying. However in the process i've found LI shifts to be invaluable and i'm now using LI way more than i was before. Especially LI B and LI K. I'm not sure why it didn't occur to me before to whore the hell out of LI cuz it really is a beautiful stance. Low risk, high reward.
So these days LI and RC are my most used stances, the attacks are big and bad, and do a number on the soul gauge. I still use BL B a lot, but i began throwing much more. I've been using 4B and 6A exclusively for my initiators almost exclusively.
 
I'm having a mixup issue that I simply can't find a solution for. First, some background on my Maxi:

I am completely new to Maxi. I never gave him much respect in SC1, and didn't play SC2 or 3. I've mained Taki forever, with Astaroth as my backup. I don't like Asty in SC4, so I ditched him. <3 Taki. Anyway, my Maxi curriculum goes something like this:

Step 1 - learn basic moves
Step 2 - learn neutral -> RO entry, and RO moves.
Step 3,4,5 - learn neutral -> other stances' entries, and those stances' moves.

I'm at Step 2 right now, refining my RO play. I picked RO as my first stance to learn because 6A was the best tool I could find to close distance. I can credit whirow's gamefaqs article for that nugget of info. Maxi's range is variable - a lot of his moves have horrific range and so if you want every blow of a string to land, you have to be pretty close. As part of refining my RO play, I've learned more about BL and LO. Still pretty virgin to LI and RC. So now you know where I stand, what my knowledge and comfort level with Maxi is, and where I'm coming from. So allow me to present my problem:

After playing the same people enough, they know to duck my incoming 6A approach. At that point, of course, I'm screwed. I've tried to find other moves that move Maxi forward a considerable amount. 66A and 44AB are currently my secondary and tertiary closing-in tools. I'm also trying to use 33B more.

44AB is particularly nice (for me) because it also goes into RO, which is the stance I've been focusing on learning right now.

66A only *kind of* solves the problem. If it hits, it knocks the opponent away from you. Assuming he gets up quickly, you have the range problem all over again - you're still too far from him.

33B is more of a punisher than an approach; the windup on it is very obvious.

So what tools do *you* use to close in and start really doing damage? I love 6A, but I need something else because I've become too predictable. Because of my familiarity with RO, BL and LO, I'd prefer if the approach ended in one of those. But of course, any good ideas that don't end in those are still very welcome.

Thanks in advance.
 
3B doesnt technicly move you forward very much but does catch a lot of people off guard as they move in and goes to RO if thats what your aiming for. like 3B~ROA is NC (and sets you up for shits and giggles)
 
3B is nice.
And the lower range is not exactly a loss, thanks to the additional soul gauge damage.

When the enemy is a considerable distance away, I like to use an occasional 236B and follow it up with A. Sometimes I get punished, sometimes I counterhit their attempt. ...And sometimes even 236B itself will interrupt.
But it doesn't seem to be a move that should be used too often, because it's linear, and not that hard to punish...
 
i agree with twiggy, 3B RO A is a nice NC that can develop several different ways. A lot of people agree that BL is maxi's best stance by far. If your having comfort issues with the 33B you can try the 33B~A. Instead of a high hit punisher (which im a big fan of throwing out 33B on a teching up opp) it is a mid that knocks them down and has wonderful frame advantage also goes right into a PSL. and if you want to mess with ur oppents head, really work on those psl loops. I just recently started using them and have paid of for me. But be very careful to not abuse them! Really work on that 3B RO A, try to develop different variations from that. that would be a really good start
 
So what tools do *you* use to close in and start really doing damage? I love 6A, but I need something else because I've become too predictable. Because of my familiarity with RO, BL and LO, I'd prefer if the approach ended in one of those. But of course, any good ideas that don't end in those are still very welcome.

Thanks in advance.

I use 66K alot now thanks to Johnny Blaze. Don't know why that didn't occur to me in the first place. Closes the distance very nicely against people like Kilik, plus it seems to be a tech jump.

Also, don't forget about 33bA
 
i use 4B K on opps that like to play the range game. If someone like kilik or ivy is keeping me away from them (both of those characters games depend on the range rather than close quarters.) Ill throw that out the 4B K hoping it gets blocked. It leaves me a slight frame advantage to start the pressure game. But if it lands great, but it usually knocks them back far enought o start the range game over again. If i dont get hit, my reflex is to start the 3B RO A game and mix it up from there!
 
i use 4B K on opps that like to play the range game. If someone like kilik or ivy is keeping me away from them (both of those characters games depend on the range rather than close quarters.) Ill throw that out the 4B K hoping it gets blocked. It leaves me a slight frame advantage to start the pressure game. But if it lands great, but it usually knocks them back far enought o start the range game over again. If i dont get hit, my reflex is to start the 3B RO A game and mix it up from there!

Don't rely on that at all. At high levels of play you will be subject to torture from players who duck conventional LO K, and RO A strings. NAMELY 4B LO K, and 3B RO A. They look for those 2 in particular JUST to duck and punish.

Honestly i have no problems with maxi's ranged game. His mid range attacks do me quite fine honestly. VS Kilik i use 33K a lot cuz it fucks Asura up. As well as 4AB stuff.
Maxi is great at mid range. Outside of character's 2A range is perfect for him. Strive to fight there all the time if u can. I tend to not attack at long range unless it's with 8WR left+A and very sparingly 11B.
 
Back
Top Bottom